To develop filmed photo, a user usually brings a film to a photo processing shop.
Digital devices such as a digital camera and a scanner have been spread to personal use. Images captured or scanned by such the digital device are printed by, for example, a printer connected to a personal computer. Since digital images can be recorded on a recording medium, a photo processing shop which can handle digital images also processes the digital data to print the images.
The above described conventional methods for developing images have the following problems.
Since filmed photo must be developed at a photo processing shop, it takes a long time to develop photos.
Although digital images can be printed by a personal printer, such the personal printer is usually a low-end one. Therefore, it is difficult to realize high quality and high speed printing in home.
A photo processing shop which can handle digital images can print the images with high quality, however, it also takes a long time to image developing as well as the case of film photo developing.
Regardless of filmed image or digital image, image processing for printing costs a user. For example, a photo processing shop requires fees for developing and printing services, and a personal printer costs for expendable supplies such as paper and inks.
For high speed printing, various printing apparatuses have been developed. One of them is a printing apparatus equipped with a plurality of printing mechanisms.
FIG. 29 is a diagram showing the system structure of a conventional printing apparatus having a plurality of printing mechanisms. As shown in FIG. 29, a printing apparatus 190 comprises an interface (I/F) 191, a storage unit 192, a main controller 193, and a plurality of printing mechanisms 194. The I/F 191 receives print information and outputs it to the main controller 193. The main controller 193 stores the print information in the storage unit 192 once. The main controller 193 reads the print information from the storage unit 192 at predetermined timing, prepares image data based on the read print information, and transfers the image data to any of the plurality of printing mechanisms 194. The printing mechanism 194 performs printing on a sheet in accordance with the received image data. Thus, the printing mechanisms 194 of the printing apparatus 190 perform printing in parallel.
Since the image data preparation depends only on the main controller 193 and the prepared image data set is transferred to any of the plural printing mechanisms 194, it is not able to prepare and transfer further image data relating to next print information during image data preparation for the currently processed print information.
If several sets of the print data are supplied to the printing apparatus 190, it takes a long time to process them, therefore, it is difficult to realize high speed printing even if the apparatus is equipped with a plurality of printing mechanisms.